I first heard this poem a few years ago when a friend saw her perform live. Recently I felt the urge to hear it again as it is SOOOOOOO powerful. It still gives me goosebumps. I love the message, the delivery, everything is spot on. Andrea Gibson is a super-talented lesbian slam poet and writer. She is awe-inspiring. The way she outlines the paradox that is life is truly genius. Life doesn't rhyme. I wish I could write a lot more on this topic, but I'm dog-tired and don't have it in me. Maybe soon.......
Below are the words - but it REALLY is best heard, so watch the video. I bolded some of the lines I really dig:i often repeat myself and the second time's a lie
i love you
i love you
see what i mean i don't...
and i do
and i'm not talking about a girl i might be kissing on
i'm talking about this world i'm blissing on and hating at the exact same time
see life doesn't rhyme
it's bullets...and wind chimes
it's lynchings...and birthday parties
it's the rope that ties the noose
and the rope that hangs the backyard swing
it's a boy about to take his life and with the knife to his wrist
he's thinking of only two things: his father's fist and his mother's kiss
and he can't stop crying
it's wanting tonight to speak the most honest poem i've ever spoken in my life
not knowing if that poem should bring you closer to living or dying
drowning of flying cause life doesn't rhyme
last night i prayed myself to sleep
woke this morning to find god's obituary scrolled in tears on my sheets
then walked outside to hear my neighbor
erasing ten thousand years of hard labor
with a single note of his violin and the sound of the traffic rang like a hymn
as the holiest leaf of autumn fell from a plastic tree
beautiful ---and ugly
like right now i'm needing nothing more than for you to hug me
and if you do i'm gonna scream like a caged bird
see...life doesn't rhyme
sometimes love is a vulgar word
sometimes hate calls itself peace
on the nightly news i've heard saints preaching truths
that would have burned me at the stake
i've heard poets tellin lies that made me believe in heaven
sometimes i imagine hitler at seven years old
a paint brush in his hand at school
thinkin what color should i paint my soul
sometimes i remember myself with track marks on my tongue
from shooting up convictions that would have hung innocent men from trees
have you ever seen a mother falling to her knees
the day her son dies in a war she voted for
can you imagine how many gay teen-age lives were saved
the day matthew shepherd died
could there have been anything louder
than the noise inside his father's head
when he begged the jury
please don't take the lives of the men
who turned my son's skull to powder
and i know nothing would make my family prouder
than giving up everything i believe in
still nothing keeps me believing
like the sound of my mother breathing
life doesn't rhyme
it's tasting your rapist's breath on the neck of a woman who loves you more
than anyone has loved you before
then feeling holy as jesus
beneath the hands of a one night stand
who's calling somebody else's name
it's you never feelin more greedy
than when you're handing out dollars to the needy
it's my not eating meat for the last seven years
then seeing the kindest eyes i've ever seen in my life
on the face a man with a branding iron in his hand
and a beat down baby calf wailing at his feet
it's choking on your beliefs
it's your worst sin saving your fucking life
it's the devil's knife carving holes into your soul
so angels will have a place to make their way inside
life doesn't rhyme
still life is poetry --- not math
all the world's a stage but the stage is a meditation mat
you tilt your head back you breathe when your heart is broken
you plant seeds in the cracks and you pray for rain
and you teach your sons and daughters
there are sharks in the water
but the only way to survive
is to breathe deep and
dive.
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